September 01, 2011

Goat-cheese farm in Provence

An expedition to the goats
La Roquebrussanne, Var (Provence)
While we were staying in Provence recently, we visited a
goat-cheese farm in the deep wooden expanses of the Var département. Visiting the farm of Carel father and son wasn't too arduous, it is located on the bushy slopes overlooking a valley planted with vineyards near the village of Laroquebrussanne, very close to an estate that I visited a few years ago, the Domaine du Loou. We went there with a friend who has been living around for some time and uses to buy cheese there. The cheese (which is sometimes called Rove de Garrigues) was very tasty, with this concentrated character derived from animals feeding on Provencal herbs and weeds growing in harsh conditions. Here is a country where thymus, rosmarin, even lavender (like on this picture on the side, in a spot where there was wild lavender almost everywhere - the lavender can be guessed at the left of the dirt road) grow in the wild, not counting other lesser-known precious aromatic herbs that a knowledgeable cook would spot immediately. We use to stock up every year on the main Provence herbs when we walk through such remote areas (be it in the spring, which is better, or in summer), and we use them for our winter herbal tea or for cooking. It's so plentiful everywhere you look that I have a hard time understanding how shops can sell packaged aromatic herbs around here...Going to where these goats graze in the wild was another story compared to driving to the cheese farm, this is a long walk through the plateau under a scorching sun and it ended up being quite an expedition.

Side roads in a 2 CV

Our friend Michel has a vintage 2 CV (two horses in French), the iconic small Citroën car from the 1950s' and 1960s' whose unforgetable design is part of our national psyche. This car which was also the first all-terrain light vehicule intended for the French masses, was actually made by Citroën
well until the early 1990s' and his own red 2CV is indeed much younger than my own vintage Ami 8 (1971)
which Citroën stopped making in 1978... Whatever, driving on the narrow winding road from Laroquebrussanne to the cheese farm was motoring at its best, Provence as you like it.
When we dropped unanounced at the small facility, there was just the employee who was busy working in the cheese-making room. The place looked like any other cheese facility (see this satellite view of the cheese facility), just that it was in Provence, but the surrounding was so peaceful and laid back, like this hammock hanging between trees in the shade; If I hadn't known that cheese making is nearly as exhausting as artisan grower, I'd say they have the real good life here.
We bought several small round half-dry cheeses, of the soft type, and a slice of a goat tomme, a larger cheese with a longer aging. The one we bought had a two months and a half affinage (affinage for cheese is the equivalent of élevage for wines, in French). This latter sold for 25 € a kilo if I remember, and I loved its texture. The round goat cheeses were smaller than the ones I use to buy in the Loire, but very tasty because of what the goats eat in the wild.

Wilderness in central Var

A few days later we decided to go see the goat herd in the mountains. Michel had told us he could lead us to the area where the animals graze, deep in the mountains between Laroquebrussanne, Mazaugues and Signes, which are villages in this hilly area. The problem is that you need to walk a long distance along dirt roads which are forbidden to private vehicules because of the fire hazard. These wild expanses are even closed to pedestrians part of the year, on particularly-hot days, or under windy conditions (Mistral) for instance. I'm not even sure we were allowed to walk there that day, but we took the risk; we parked the car at the beginning of the dirt road along the départementaleand began our ordeal with just a bit of water and some cheese and saucisson. What we thought would last 3 hours round trip lasted actually 6 hours, and we were quite exhausted and thirsty at the end but the whole thing was worth the effort.

The mobile milking machine

We trusted Michel on this one, he knew the area thanks to his many hikes around here. After we passed this beautiful vista you saw above, the winding dirt road went through both garrigue and woods. We also
passed a couple of ancient sheperd buildings (pic on left) where
you could see clearly that they were designed for both the people and the herd. As we were reaching these places by foot ourselves, we could feel how remote from the village this was in the past. At one point we reached the winter base for the goats (pic on right), with metal barns and hay storage, but the goats were nowhere to be seen yet.
After another hour maybe we saw signs of life in the wild, first a lone horse grazing under the trees, then a big white sheperd dog, and the mobile milking trailer where _we were lucky_ the farmer was busy relieving the goats from their milk. I looked for some time on Google Maps and I think that I found the Satellite view of this summer goat camp with the mobile milking-machine unit. It must be there for months in a row if the satellite caught it. Mathias Carel is the goat-cheese farmer, he is a young guy in his late 20s maybe, or early 30s', and he runs the farm with his father. Every day he drives up here with his pickup (he has the right to, because of the goats) to check the goats, feed the dogs and collect the milk. Then he drives all the way down back to the milk farm near La Roquebrussanne.

Pouring food for the goats

As we got closer, we had to go through the three sheperd dogs, enormous animals who bark a bit because this is their job but seem very kind. We saw Mathias Carel, the goat farmer, who was alternatively preparing the food, guiding the goats in the system (they seem to know perfectly how the whole procedure unfolds) and putting the milking devices in place. On this picture you can see how he pour corn he took from a bucket. The goats are waiting outside for their turn.

The milk farms was settled in 1978, starting with goats grazing around the facility in the garrigue. Later, as land was fenced and private houses built, it was more difficult to let the goats graze and have access to available land. Since then, they made deals with local forest authorities so that they could let the herd graze in the wild. The forest administration considers that the goats help prevent the forest fires by eating the lowly vegetation and clear the underwoods. Plus, the presence of the farmer coming and going everyday in these uninhabited areas brings a human-surveillance element which helps prevent forest fires. They signed contracts with the French Forest Service (Office National des Forêts). These contracts, which are named Mesures Agro Environnementales (M.A.E.) have been set up by the State, the European Union and the region administration and the selected partners like Mathias' organic farm and herd contribute to the preservation of the wooded land.

Positioning the goats

Although the goats are experienced into the game of climbing into the trailer and putting their head through the slot, Mathias helps them through. When the right number of goats have entered the row, he closes the trap door and opens the one on the other side. Sometimes when a goat is faced with the door being closed, it rushes
to the second door on the other side although goats are already lined there,
it looks like a rude human who would try to jump the queue and pass every one else...

Mathias Carel confirms that the metal barn that we passed on our way to here is the winter base for the goats. From november to june, they move the goats to there because this plateau is too rough in winter. The goats spend the nights in the barns for protection against the cold and hard weather (yes, Provence can be harsh in winter...) and also against the wolves, as these wild animals are back in Europe after having been re-introduced by the administration for debatable reasons. In this regard, two of the dogs are for protection of the herd only (they aren't trained to guide the herd), they are the big white Patous (see one on the pic on the sides) and they're with the goats round the clock to prevent any attack from wolves. There is actually one wolf in the area since 2008, when it was officially spotted by agents of the ONCFS, a State administration in charge of the wild species in France. The official aknowledgement came after there had been several attacks and deaths among the herds of the region in 2007. There has been attacks also in 2008 and 2009 (the last one). Among the reasons there hasn't been any goat loss since 2009 is that they invested in fencing and changed the procedures to limit the possibility for tyhe marauding wolf to prey of the herd. After the wolf was officially considered present in the area, they could receive some public funding to help pay for the additional fences that they had to build.

Dog looking at the whole thing

They have 190 goats on the milking mode, plus younger goats not yet yielding milk which makes a total of maybe 220 goats. They're making organic goat cheese since the start of the certification in 1992. They had also like every cheese farm to invest in a cheese lab facility respecting the norms. These norms by the way vary depending of the status of the farm. Mathias Carel's farm has what is named the Agrément Communautaire, it allows them to sell in the whole of Europe without intermediary. Speaking of the norms, Mathias says the authorities back-pedaled somehow on certain issues like the marche en avant principle (too complicated for me to explain it indepth) which is an standard procedure regarding the chronology of the cheese making process (if I got it right). Mathias says that they recognized that the sanitary security wasn't necessarily breached if this chronology procedure wasn't respected. I'm divinely surprised to hear that the administration shows some leniency in the norms issue, would it be that the French bureaucracy begins to care about real food ? I want to wait and see if this is an accident or a serious trend...

Hooking up the goats to the machine

At the cheese farm, the cheese "ferments" by itself through the ambiance of the facility, like it would happen in a real winery working with indigenous yeasts. The taste of the cheese comes not only with the Provence grass and weeds that the goats feed on, but also because of the particular breed of these goats, which are from a local breed named Rove, it is a very rustic breed found near Marseilles and the Etang de Berre. These Rove goats which were initially appreciated for their meat are used from feeding on the Mediteranean low scrub and the down side (for a conventional cheese farm) is that they have low milk yields.

Routine

The goat cheese farm works only 8 months a year because the goats' natural
milking rhythm goes that way,
the other months being when goats reproduce and give birth. In short, the farm works between end of february to october and have no revenues during the other (winter) months.
Every day, Mathias or his father drive the pickup truck with the tank to the plateau to collect the milk and hauls back the precious liquid in the valley to the facility. The other people allowed to drive around are the fire department people, the ONF and a few private owners who own some land here and there (although new construction isn't permitted in these wild natural expanses).
Speaking of the cheese and milk farm, they have a total production of 30 000 liters of milk a year, which is processed into cheese. They sell lots of this cheese in the AMAP network, which is in short a group of farmers and shops spread all over France so that the organic products connect directly to the customers/consumers. They sell to several of these AMAP distribution fronts and this works well. They used to go to Rungis, the Paris wholesale food market but in the end, for ethical reasons, they preferred to concentrate their sales on the AMAP and other direct-sales systems.
Asked about how hard the job is, Mathias says that during the season, it's quite a lot of work all day, even if his fathers helps and that they dispatch the tasks to get some free time. Winter is of course more quiet. Overall, the beauty of the area in which they move every day helps a lot. We saw it once for this regular summer day but the light is very different depending of the season and the best moments aren't necessarily in the summer days when the sun is at its zenith.

These Rove goats are so cute

I think it's quite beautiful, what this goat farmer does, I mean, making cheeses from these goats that are known to be less productive in terms of volume of milk. By choosing this old breed of Rove goats, they know that they'll do less cheese than with a mainstream breed, but they still do it that way, and I don't think they sell their cheese at higher prices for that, I think I paid 2,20 for a regular demi-sec cheese at the facility, not bad for what you get. On the other hand, you have something made from an ancient breed and which tastes different, and these goats are so lovely, their horns seem to be specially designed to battle its way through the Provencal garrigue...

Now, after this visit with the goats, we walked a bit deeper in the wilderness and reached what our friend Michel wanted tob show us : a 4000 year old site where humans lived with herds. It's been throughly studied by scientists and archaeologists and there are extremely old paintings on the rock surface at the basement of this construction. The place was inhabited throughout successives historic eras and we can almost say that Mathias with his goat herd (which is grazing a kilometer away, maybe), is the continuator of this Heritage. The place is named la Bergerie des Maigres (the "sheepfold of the thin"). There's a description of the place at mid-scroll on this page. Here is a text interview in French of Philippe Hameau who is leading the effort to preserve this place, where he answers questions about the paintings in this Neolithic cave. An elaborate rain-water storage system has been smartly set up above the rock and its construction underneath, and this pdf page provides clues about the issue and the relation between Neolithic art and water. There is also this other Pdf document where you can see images or reproductions (page 9 & 12, or Fig. 3, fig.5 and fig. 6) of these Neolithic paintings.
The inside of the building where you can access to the paintings, is closed to the public. The area is so remote anyway that I doubt a lot of people come here. I tried to locate this place on Google Satellite View but couldn't find it.

Les Maigres : 4000-year old sheperd site

On this video, you can walk around this place, see inside with the large bed on the left which was intended for several people I guess, and the animal space on the right. Walking further around the building/rock, you see the vat through its round window, that's where the rain water flowing from above the giant rock was stored. Very ingenious, and when the whole constructions and walls were in good shape that was probably a wonderful secluded living place. They probably couldn't imagine then than we in the future would dream of leaving modern cities for such eremitic living quarters...

There is some wine pairing to do with these cheeses of course, and even if we tried several combinations with different wines, it seemed to me that the tomme went well with the white wine of the Coopérative de Cotignac which we used as table wine for lunch, Cotignac being a village some 20 kilometers away. The wine which costs some 13 € in a 5-liter bag-in-box is a blend of Rolle ad Ugni Blanc.

Comments

Great post that makes me hungry; especially the last photograph with the cheese, bread and wine.

Your photographs do a great job of telling the story, but I also enjoy the comments and background you add. I'm slowly going through all of your posts and discovering new wines and vignerons (I think that's the right term) from regions I already know.